Nintendo Switch Draws Gamers In For HD Retro Fun At PAX East - LIVE Hands-On

If you were to guess that the NintendoSwitch would make a big splash at this weekend's PAX East 2017, held in the sporting city of Boston, you'd be absolutely correct. However, considering that big N's latest console just dropped a week ago, that's no real surprise, perhaps.

HotHardware's fearless leader, Dave Altavilla, as well as our own security guru Chris Goetting and tech news and reviews editor Brittany Goetting (a dynamic duo for sure), hit up the PAX show floor and found that Nintendo was in fact drawing some big crowds. Despite that, they managed to get some hands-on time with the Switch to relish in some old-school gaming goodness and even caught some game play with a currently unreleased title, Splatooon 2...

On display was a game that might seem like a bit of an odd choice: Street Fighter 2 - odd only because this is a brand-new console showing off a 25-year-old game. However, the HD version of the game was being demo'ed, modernizing it with cleaner lines, punchier colors and less noticeable individual pixels. After Chris put in some hard time battling Nintendo "booth guy" Mark, a new game was teased: Splatoon 2.

With a name like Splatoon 2, we wouldn't blame you for thinking the game might be a little uncharacteristically violent for a Nintendo platform, but it's actually one of the furthest things from that. The "Splat" name comes from the fact that friends will do battle with each other equipped with ink-loaded guns. The goal? To coat a room with more of your color than your opponent. It's a fun premise that's loaded with eye candy, and will likely spawn many intense matches in its future.

Live Nintendo Switch gaming action...

Splatoon 2 has the makings of being an eSports title, with its emphasis on strategy and mayhem-filled gameplay, so don't be surprised if you hear about it a lot more in the future.

Splatoon 2, for Nintendo Switch

If there are any other takeaways from Dave and Chris' visit to Nintendo at PAX, it's that the Nintendo Switch can "switch" very quickly. In the video above, the Switch goes from tablet to TV mode in one or two seconds flat. In fact, it's likely quicker than the time it would take to sit yourself down on the couch after plugging it in. That, combined with the super-crisp screen of the tablet, and the new, highly acclaimed Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the Switch is certifiably a very HOT product at the PAX East show this year.